What a change in the weather today, 26 deg, and now is 17 deg. Will need our warm blanket, maybe even our Doona tonight.
It is so much better than the heat, had the energy to walk up to the town and have a look around, after settling into the Caravan Park. Didn't want to walk anywhere in Goondiwindi with the heat.
David put on his backpack and went for an hours walk, keeping fit for his 6 day walk in Tassie. The pack is nearly as big as he is.
Love Dawn.

EXEC OVERVIEW
Lovely weather
2 sections of dirt roads (9km and 6 km) with treacherous sandy parts on each
Phil came to grief 3 times in sand but ok
Roman and Helen had punctures each
Morning tea at Ulamambri Memorial Hall (wonderfully restored old hall)
Lunch at Coonabarabran in Cardidans cafe
Ian and I did mini bike tour of Coonabarabran whilst waiting to regroup and leave at 1500
Mick led whole group to accommodation in single file (8km out of town )
Stayed in Warrumbungle Mountain Motel which had no mobile phone reception

We've come across some weird and wonderful letter boxes in our travels. I'm always intrigued by some people's imagination and how they worked out how to make them.
I wouldn't mind having Ned Kelly or maybe the old Aussie Dunny, complete with redback spider.

Coonabarabran - the locals call it Coona. We only had two days at Coona but packed a lot into those days.
We went driving in the "Warrumbungles" and found the Siding Spring Observatory, where experts study the planets from the biggest observatory in the southern hemisphere.
After a fairly long winding trip to the top of the mountain, we bought our tickets and walked up many, many steps to get in the lift which would take us up 4 flights to the top of the observatory. Of course, the lifts broke just as we got there so we had to climb the...

Through Coonabarabran. Stopped at Don Bradman's birth place. An old house but with a huge collection of old things all neatly displayed.
Then onto Parks (saw the 'Dish" last time) and Forbes
Stayed at a free camp beside the Forbes Lake. Actually in the main town

It's true - sleepy Coonabarabran in the middle of NSW has some of the tastiest chilli squid I've ever tasted.
We've ended up here because we're tired from driving, and more importantly Aust are playing the Poms at some ungodly hour and Stu is determined to watch it, so we book into a motel and head out to see the bright lights of Coonabarabran on a Saturday night. It doesn't take long - it's a sleepy little town and even the pub we go to doesn't have much atmosphere. This could be of course that we're in the wrong pub as the chick at the...

Early morning we met our Oz Experience tour bus which will be our main form of transportation North up the coast from Sydney to Cairns. The company prides itself as the so-called party bus of Australia. The company seems legitimate, but I wouldn't say the same for our driver who calls herself "Fog Horn". It seems that when she is not blabbing non-stop on the intercom about who knows what, she is blasting 90's Pop music, flashing oncoming traffic and incessantly rocking the bus while honking to keep people from sleeping. She's a real piece...

Having driven through here after a stopover in Dubbo more times than I care to think of, and having promised myself to either stop or detour through the Warrumbungles one of these days, we decided the time had come - even if it was only a move of some 90K.
Found a delightful, cheap, friendly park just south of town. The response was 'G'day mate, drive down the back, turn right, and pick a spot you like'. We did just that and got a huge space with shade trees - not a 'made' area, just cleared bush. We decided this is the best park we have...